Lily's Erised Experience
by TigerLilyLogic
Summary: Lily wanted that future so badly. She yearned for it with all her heart. She was too late, and too stubborn. One-shot.


I came upon it by accident that night. I didn't know why it was there, or what it was, but being the curious witch that I was, I investigated.  
I thought that it was rather peculiar for it be in a room all by itself, and thought that it might have been dangerous. I cast some protective enchantments and when nothing happened, made my way towards it. It was tall, about seven feet, and ovular in shape. It was covered in a sheet, but the sheet was not dusty like I thought it would be. It was not as dusty as the rest of the room.  
I ripped the sheet off, and was surprised to see a mirror. It seemed to me to be very peculiar to have a mirror down in the basement. Regardless, I walked up to it to see my reflection. Maybe it was an enchanted mirror?  
What I saw in the mirror shocked me. James was in the room, standing right behind me. I whipped myself around, only to find that I was still alone. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this James seemed slightly older, maybe just a year or so. He was taller than the James I knew now, which made him tower over me just that much more. I also noticed that I was standing next to him in the mirror. James walked up to the me in the mirror, and wrapped his arms around the mirror-me. Then, he kissed the top of her/my head, and nuzzled his face into her/my neck. I noticed that something was glinting on his hand, and noticed that it was a wedding band. When I looked at her/my hand, there was an almost identical(more feminine) one there. And...I was pregnant!  
I was shocked to say the least! I gasped, and fell to the ground, not being able to bear the picture in front of me. It was a future that I so desperately wanted, but was too late to grab. I had turned him down too many times, insulted him too much, been such a hypocrite. He wouldn't want me anymore. We were just friends now, he hadn't asked me out since we had returned to Hogwarts three months ago.  
I began crying, wrapping my arms around my legs. I wanted this, I love him, and now I realized how bad he hurt every time he used to look at me, every time he rejected me. He was sincere, and I was too blind to notice until it was too late.  
Suddenly, a hand was on my shoulder. I whipped my head around, not wanting anyone to see me like this. When I saw James standing there, looking so very caring and sad, I just cried harder. He was so good to me.  
James kneeled down next to me and picked me up. He placed me in his lap, and I wrapped myself around him. My legs wrapped around his waist, my arms around his chest. He wrapped his arms around me too, using one hand to cradle my head into his shoulder. For a long time, he just sat there with me, rocking us back and forth, rubbing my back, whispering reassurances into my ear.  
After what was almost ten minutes, he said, "When I imagined you wrapped up in my arms, it wasn't quite like this."He told me, and I could almost feel his wry smile.  
I laughed softly, and he let me up. I sat down on the floor next to him, already missing the contact. He was just being a friend, but I wanted so much more.  
"You know, Lily, this mirror isn't supposed to make you cry. It's supposed to do the exact opposite in fact. Make you smile, laugh." James said, leaning over to wipe the remaining tears off of my cheeks.  
I gave him a small smile, and a shrug.  
"You see the inscription?" He said, pointing to the words that I in fact hadn't noticed on top of the mirror.  
_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._  
I looked at it, wondering what that could possibly mean. It wasn't runes, or latin, or any other language that I could recognize.  
"I don't understand." I told him, trying not to look at his face. I hated not understanding things. I definitely didn't understand my feelings towards him. I shouldn't even like him, but I love him with all of my heart.  
"It says, 'I show not your face but your heart's desire.' It shows us what we desire the most, what we want and yearn for with all of our hearts." He said, speaking slowly, and I could detect a note of sadness in his voice.  
I laughed, and there was a small tint to bitterness to it. "Yeah, I thought that was what it did."  
We both sat there again, and I turned to face him.  
"What do you see, in the mirror?" I asked him.  
He stared at me for a very long time, and then he finally said, "I see us. We're holding hands, and we're married. We are in our home, and it's filled with children, some that look just like you, some that look just like me." He didn't meet my eye whilst he said that, and I could tell by the clench of his jaw that he was very serious, and very sad. He thought that that dream would never come true. I would make his dreams come true.  
"You want to know what I see?" I asked him, searching for his hand in the darkness. I had a feeling he was evading my search, so I climbed right back into his lap.  
He was shocked, but then he held onto me so tightly that I thought no one could ever break us apart.  
"I don't know." He said, and his voice broke in the end of his sentence.

I began to speak as I rubbed patterns into his chest with my fingers. "You and I. We are standing there, just standing. And you're holding me, and kissing my cheeks, and we have wedding bands on. And then, you drop to the floor, and lift up my shirt. And there's a little bump there. Your baby is inside of me, and you kiss my stomach, and you talk to it. And I want it. I want it so bad, but I don't know if you want that anymore."

Needless to say, he did want it. Very much so. And I realized, looking back now, that it was the inevitable. There was no other path that we could've taken that didn't lead us straight into each other's arms.


End file.
